Convergys takes steps to retain employees at global call centers

Days spent patiently talking to people a world away through problems with their personal computers or an entire business' information system - a single call often lasting more than an hour - were wearing on him. Not so much the work, he said, but what the future held.

''I was disillusioned by my growth prospects,'' Banerjee said by telephone from New Delhi. ''I did not understand what my motivation was; I was not taking the initiative I had earlier.''

Banerjee, 25, had plenty of other options in India's hot market for skilled workers. But an alert manager who literally saw red intercepted him before he could get out the door.

Associated Press

An employee of Convergys Corp., a global leader in call-center outsourcing, speaks with a client, in Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi, India. Convergys, a Cincinnati-based company that has some 74,000 employees in 33 countries, has made efforts to reduce turnover in its call centers.

They discussed employer Convergys Corp.'s growth plans and Banerjee's own likely opportunities if he stayed at the world's largest call center outsourcing company. The heart-to-heart sitdown was part of a retention program begun in India that pushes managers to watch for signs of dissatisfaction and rewards them for retaining staff.

As part of the program, workers are on a weekly basis rated ''red, yellow, green'' with red likely to leave, based on 50 indicators such as increased tardiness or declining performance. A yellow rating results in regular meetings to gauge the employee's outlook and a red one triggers an immediate intervention. Managers' bonuses are now tied to retention.

Cutting employee turnover

How the Convergys Corp.'s system to reduce employee turnover works:&

Team leaders use a Red/Yellow/Green tracking form in which they assess the likelihood that a worker will quit soon from high to unlikely, using some 50 indicators developed by the company's human resources officials and managers. They include increased tardiness or absences and decline in performance.&

The team leaders update any changes on a weekly basis.&

Once a yellow rating is assigned, team leaders meet regularly with employees to discuss their outlook.&

A red rating triggers immediate intervention from the team leader, operations manager and other resource people, to see if there is a practical solution to the factors behind the employee's likelihood to leave. Regular meetings follow.

On the Net:

Convergys Corp.

 DMG Consulting

American Management Association.

 Tata Consultancy Services

Convergys, which also operates a call center in Lubbock, said turnover has dropped significantly - by double-digit percentages in some areas using the system - in a business in which attrition typically ranges from 35 percent to 70 percent. The Cincinnati-based company, which has some 74,000 employees in 33 countries, is adopting the ''early warning system'' throughout its operations.

While many businesses facing tight labor markets have added incentives for workers, Convergys officials say they decided to be aggressive on turnover by making employee retention part of everyday operations and tying managers' pay to it.

''We wanted people waking up every day saying, 'How am I keeping these agents?' '' said Clint Streit, the company's executive vice president for customer care.

Diana Fluss, a veteran analyst and consultant for call-center companies, said help-desk employees are dealing with customers who can get frustrated as they painstakingly go through lengthy procedures. That can make for long days, especially without positive feedback from managers.

''You can easily burn through people in one of these centers,'' said Fluss, who heads DMG Consultants, based in West Orange, N.J.

Turnover had become a serious problem in India, where Convergys has grown to more than 12,000 employees in five years at the same time that India's economic emergence has created high demand for college-educated, trained employees.

Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software company, says it keeps retention high among its some 83,500 employees with a strong career management program that offers continuing education and training, job rotations so employees learn new skills, and opportunities to advance in the company's global operations.

''Smoke is a symptom of fire, and we found there are little symptoms that let us know when someone was happy or unhappy,'' said Anthony Joseph, Convergys' director of human resources for India. ''It could be someone cheerful and talkative becoming quiet; someone had missed their transport a couple of times. These give us signals.''

Joseph stresses that managers are trained not to be intrusive into personal lives or privacy and to avoid an atmosphere of surveillance that would defeat the purpose of the effort. Banerjee and George Varghese, 25, another service agent in India, said the system fostered dialogue that let them know their managers wanted to keep them and help them move up.

Sharad Talwar, Convergys director of operations for New Delhi, said it's basically about managers getting to know their employees better and improving communication. Many turnover catalysts, such as a need for different hours or some time off, ''are highly controllable in nature. It could be something that is extremely simple.''

Such concepts as regular communication with employees sound like common sense, but often aren't practiced.

''The line supervisors are pulled in so many different directions; you're very often involved in putting out the hottest fire,'' said Fluss, the consultant. ''It's a question of formalizing best practices.''

Reducing turnover is a high priority for most businesses in today's economy, said Manny Avramidis, the American Management Association's senior vice president for global human resources. The U.S. work force is expected to have nearly one-fourth turnover this year, with higher rates in some rural areas.

''In a labor market like the one we're experiencing today, you have some challenges,'' Avramidis said. Companies try a variety of tactics, including perquisites from free food to company stock, to stem the flow.

''There are some no-brainers, like competitive salaries and benefits,'' Avramidis said. ''Then there is mentorship, clear communications, recognition.''

Convergys officials say they also focus on benefits that improve retention, including tuition reimbursement, continuing training and advancement opportunities. Streit said the company promotes from within, and protects its training investment _ $5,000 to $10,000 per worker _ while seeing increased productivity from longer-term employees.

Banerjee, meanwhile, has gone from a bored customer agent to a team leader who takes pride in warding off competitors' efforts to lure employees.

''I'm pretty excited,'' he said. ''I look at those factors I could identify from what I did myself. In my team recently, someone actually had a job offer from a competitor. He opened up to me, we discussed his future prospects, and then we moved him to green.''